Cook County Cemetery

Chicago Fire


THE CHICAGO FIRE BURIALS

“The dead bodies were gathered up as soon as possible by the coroner and given interment at the county burying-ground”
Reference: book Chicago and the great Conflagration


“The loss of life in the fire was estimated as not less than three hundred, and the bodies of the dead, as far as they could be found, were put in the county burial ground”
Reference J. Seymour Currer Volume two, 1912


The Great Chicago Fire in October 1871 caused as many as 300 deaths. Approx. 117 120 bodies were later brought out to the County burying ground for burial by the coroner. According to the Chicago Tribune, a morgue was temporarily set up in a livery stable at 64 Milwaukee Avenue on Monday morning, October 9th, 1871. In a book "The Great Chicago Fire" by Robert Cromie, 1958, it is stated that the morgue was set up on Tuesday Cromie reports 120 bodies recovered and official total death count between 200 300. According to the History of Cook County, the dead was stated as being about 150. According to Chicago and the Great Conflagration, 1872, by Elias Colbert and Everett Chamberlin deaths were estimated at near three hundred by Coroner Stephens and Dr. Benjamin C. Miller, county Physician. This last estimate does not include still born children.


Many of the bodies were disfigured so that sex cannot be determined. One or two bodies of the forty were "quite untouched" by fire having died from suffocation. Twelve arrived from Wesson Street alone. They are all ticketed by the coroner, showing precisely where found.


In another account, "no less than seventy charred bodies" were lying at the further end of the stable. Of the seventy it was said that only four were of human form, the others burned " out of all shape."


According to the Chicago Tribune, most bodies were found in the vicinity of Chicago Avenue (800 north) and the river. Cromie mentioned an additional location, that being the "narrow dead end streets near Wesson and Townsend, a little farther north. When the Chicago Avenue bridge (800 north) was closed, many turned toward Division (1200 north) on those streets and were trapped." He states that there were also deaths in the South Division.


Here is a list of Chicago Fire victims. Many, if not most were buried at Cook County Cemetery at Dunning: